British Prime Minister Tony Blair telephoned Syrian President Bashar Assad to inform him of the planned trip, spokesman, Gebran Kuriyeh, said, without saying if a date had been set.

Kuriyeh said that, in his conversation with Blair, Assad had laid the "entire responsibility for the incidents and delicate situation in the region on Israel."

Cook and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Shara spoke over the telephone on Sunday, a day after violence flared in southern Lebanon and guerrillas of the Lebanese Shiite Muslim group Hizbollah, backed by both Syria and Iran, captured three Israeli soldiers.

The official SANA news agency said the two men agreed that the "absence of a just and comprehensive peace, based on United Nations resolutions, will remain a source of tension and instability in the region."

Also Sunday, Cook called on Israel to review the degree of violence its army was employing against Palestinian demonstrators – DAMASCUS (AFP)